Upside Down Sensors May Have Doomed Proton

Russianspaceweb.com reports today that an examination of debris from the July 2nd Proton accident strongly suggests that the vehicle’s angular velocity sensors were installed incorrectly, (upside down) causing the rocket to react to erroneous readings and swing wildly in an attempt to correct them.

If the report is confirmed, it may be a source of greater concern than if the accident has been caused by a mechanical failure, indicating that the Proton production and launch processing procedure broke down at multiple levels.